Drawing on her experience as a Producer and New Media Consultant for Channel Four, Hide&Seek and Storythings, Kim Plowright talked about the life cycle of projects, from development to after the event.
Kim describes her role as a producer as one of developing structures around creative ideas. This was a really useful session for our group as they are brimming with ideas that they now need to start weaving together into a coherent programme. But Kim’s experience has taught her the importance of balancing structure with improvisation: changing and adapting your project as you find your audience. Holding a project together whilst allowing for a healthy amount of flux is a critical skill for a producer.
Understanding story structures and the way we react to them can help us focus on the toughest parts of creative production. Keeping that in mind, Kim discussed how differing emotional journeys – those of the producer, artist and audience might impact upon a project. Understanding how your emotions peak and dip over the course of project is something that has helped me in my own role; I hope that it will be a useful reference point for our Future Producers as they navigate the weeks ahead.
Armed the knowledge that the last two weekends have provided, our Future Producers spent the remainder of the afternoon working with their team. At this stage, Watershed staff took a step back to give the cohort some space in which to develop their ideas. Of course we spent some time in their production meetings over the afternoon. For the most part this saw us providing encouragement, asking tricky questions and pointing out where they might need to be aware of deadlines. Schedules were drawn up, to-do lists written and potential partners were contacted. It was an impressive performance; one that means that our groups should transition into the weekly sessions with a good deal of the groundwork covered.
This Wednesday, the team working on the BFI Sci-Fi late night screening will be meeting with Maddy Probst, Watershed’s Cinema Programme Producer to discuss their ideas. The Family Arts Festival team will be brushing up their knowledge of ET and exploring what other activities to programme as part of the Festival. The Fun Palaces team will be holding a public consultation meeting in our Café/Bar from 6-7pm. Come along if you are interested in getting involved with that project.
That’s it for now, as there’s the pressing matter of drafting wedding vows for alien and robot civil ceremonies that I need to attend to.